Realities of Mobile Telephony in Panama

Cable & Wireless Panama (CWP), Telefonica Panama, Digicel Panama and Claro are the companies competing for the local market.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Panama has 3.3 million inhabitants and 7,281,074 registered mobile phone lines, according to the National Authority of Public Services (ASEP), which is more than two lines per person.

Despite the growth, experts estimate that the local market has not reached a point of maturity and there is lack of serious study providing a realistic view of the situation in telecommunications, and in particular in mobile telephony. Antonio Garcia, Business Development Manager of Claro Panama, is one of the supporters of this idea.

Martesfinanciero.com. reports that, according to Garcia, "it is important to reflect the actual number of active phones in the country and not just the numbers assigned by the ASEP, considering that the ratio of over 6 million mobile phones in a market of 3.3 million inhabitants is not real and far from provides an objective view of the sector."

While mobile telephony is growing and remains fixed, internet figures are "misleading" says the ASEP, as it is estimated that for every 10 clients or contracts there are 40 users. Until last year there were 1,520,886 users in Panama. For Doyen, from Digicel, the issue of mobile internet is a great opportunity because the reality is that the future of mobile communications is based on data transmission.

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